" Ghezali has a Wikipedia page, which describes him as a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He had been held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it says. He was taken into custody on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda agent, having been arrested along with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives.

Following a lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson, Guantanamo authorities recommended Ghezali be transferred to another country for continued detainment, and he was handed over to Swedish authorities in 2004. The Swedish government did not press charges."

Oh those peace loving Swedes.

I am not by any means overlooking the horrible tragedy that happened in Aurora, Colorado this morning. All our thoughts and prayers should go out to the families of the victims there. Both President Obama and Governor Romney made appropriate statements expressing the nations shock, sorrow and grief over this senseless rampage.

Things like this are hard to explain and are mostly non-preventable. Although in the case of Maj. Hassan who killed 10 at Ft. Hood while yelling Allahu Akbar,
there had been obvious signs of his Islam extremism and anti-American sentiments and the Army failed to take any action.

What motivated the killer in Aurora will come out. Sadly ABC's Brian Ross jumped the gun ( pardon the pun ) and erroneously identified the movie theater shooter as a TEA Party memner. Well now they are backing off. Fire this guy !!

"ABC News and Brian Ross are apologizing for an 'incorrect' report that James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting, may have had connections to the Tea Party.

"An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect, ABC News said in a statement. 'ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.'

In a similar statement released minutes earlier, ABC News said the report was 'incorrect' but did not include the apology. 'Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect,' the initial statement read."

You can be sure the anti 2A crowd will be clamoring for more gun control. Madcow and Thrill up his Leg on MSNBC will be foaming at the mouth for the next 72 hours advocating measures to disarm us. Ain't gonna happen Sarah Brady.

"To be clear: there is such a thing as political violence. But what is troubling is the immediate assumption by some people, usually those who are part of the political class, that every massacre can be ascribed to political motivations. Acting on this assumption, they contort things in order to make them fit a convenient political template.

This effort to interpret everything through a political and partisan lens – to reduce everything to a political and partisan interpretation – is itself a disfigurement of reality. Life is a complicated and endlessly variegated thing. Politics has a role in all our lives; but for it to play such a dominant role in people’s imagination is surely not a healthy thing. And for people to immediately and instinctively take every human event – no matter how tragic and how painful — and place it in the maw of our politics is wrong and even repulsive. It exploits people’s sorrow and grief in order to score cheap political points and frame stupid political argument.

A modest and civilized society would give room to the families and friends of the dead to begin to process their shattering losses. It would give room to the police to do their work and gather evidence. It would leave room for citizens of this nation to reflect with soberness and seriousness on what has happened; to participate, if only for a brief time, in a national mourning of sorts. And it might even resist the impulse to leverage a massacre into a political culture war. It would be helpful if members of the press and politicians understood this, and acted in a way that showed some measure of decency and compassion."

I had privately sent Ed the story of the terrorism in Bulgaria and he blew it of as if it were spitting on the sidewalk as he does with most of the Palestine violence toward Israel ( you too no doubt ) calling it Zionist propganda. You can't win with you apostates.

Oh and yes Sean you are a fucking asshole

Yanner.. Interesting ?? Please you coward address ABC's premature blame for Aurora on the TEA party Talk about hate from the freaking MSM or STFU. OTEY? Geez. You people are sickos !! Really.

"Brian Ross: There’s a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it’s Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.

Jesus fucking Christ on a hotplate. Brian Ross and his BLOTTER INVESTIGATIVE TEAM googled for a few minutes and didn’t bother trying to confirm anything and wow, huh, look at that, he was wrong.

Editor’s Note: An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. ABC News and Brian Ross apologize for the mistake, and for disseminating that information before it was properly vetted.

Tea Party people on the Internet are furious over this, and they have every right to be, because it’s an egregious, early error that will color the impressions of people no matter how frequently or aggressively it’s retracted. Can Brian Ross! Put him in the goddamn street. He is constantly wrong, at reporting on national television."

Feigned moral superiority and vacuous certitude are the twin pillars of the right's conceit. Once a person steps back and realizes their own subjectivity it is easy to see that those two foundations are no stronger than paper mache.

It is interesting to watch both here and on several FB threads how this conversation is impossible to have without someone going straight to personalization and assumed superiority. Which is very sad because this is one of the most important cultural conversations we need to have.

Another observation that interests me is how TV reporting impacts this debate. Personally, I have not watched one televised report on this incident, instead taking all my information via text online from an infinite list or sources. I watched the one cell phone video of the people exiting the scene. So I am not all worked up and full of emotion such as many who have been glued to Fox or MSNBC or whatever.

In observing this it seems that the two clear divides are those on one side who are saying clearly "there has to be something we can do to lessen the severity and frequency of these mass killings in our country" and the other side that is saying in a direct fashion "the UN wants to take our guns and undermine our freedom."

We've been stuck in place on this issue, like so many, at least in the 25 years I have been paying attention. One would think a developed, rational nation such as ours could find a way to address the problem.

i've yet to watch/read ANY story about this shooting and i've avoided it on purpose. as soon as i heard about the incident by word of mouth, i didn't want to know any more. my state of mind doesn't need such insurrection.

i appreciated ed's post. that, fred, was why i was so taken aback by yours. i had no clue about what you were rambling on about and to be quite honest, don't care. none of us should. let your stirring mind settle. this incident and all of the coverage isn't good for anyone to carry through the woods of cultural warrior defensiveness or vice-versa.

"Feigned moral superiority and vacuous certitude are the twin pillars of the right's conceit. Once a person steps back and realizes their own subjectivity it is easy to see that those two foundations are no stronger than paper mache."

"ABC News’ Brian Ross speculated this morning that the alleged shooter who attacked a Batman premier in Colorado might be a member of the Tea Party. His suggestion — since retracted by ABC — continues a trend of media figures wrongly tying such tragedies to the Tea Party since 2010.

In February 2010, Joseph Stack became a Tea Partier for purposes of the media after he committed suicide by flying his small airplane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. New York Magazine, after reading his online suicide note/manifesto that day, immediately declared that “a lot of his rhetoric could have been taken directly from a handwritten sign at a tea party rally.” The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart added that “his alienation is similar to that we’re hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement.

Neither Capehart or NYMAG mentioned that Stack quoted the Communist Manifesto approvingly and denounced capitalism as a system that teaches, “From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.” That would seem to put him at odds with the Tea Partiers, who often attacked Obamacare as a socialist government program."

Fred, it seems as if justifying hysterical excoriations against a vague but despicable "them" based on the poor reporting of a single person is an overraction. Yes, I too am troubled when the press makes avoidable mistakes, like CNN's recent rush to erroneouly report the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare, but I don't extrapolate those kinds of mistakes into proof of my fears of shadowy plots.

Lets stop all the hating on here with eachother, there already to much hate in the world. I think all would agree that violence anywhere that murders the innocent is wrong. The fact is that this incident will be played out in the media and the gun control people will be out in force. What can you, we live in a free country.

one is instructed in the best firearm schools to unsafety the weapon and place two rounds in the chest and one in the neck(for encroachers wearing armor) in three seconds or less. women need this training more than men as they are more frequently victims of violence.

i am much more interested in the character and psyche of the man who placed 3 rounds in the thugs in Florida before they could get their courage up to fire than i am in the nutjob in Colorado making political points for the licensed encroachers of both parties.

sal: these guys get little raging chubbies from the hate. it's dangerous as a domestic dispute in a trailer park to intervene.

"This effort to interpret everything through a political and partisan lens – to reduce everything to a political and partisan interpretation – is itself a disfigurement of reality. Life is a complicated and endlessly variegated thing. Politics has a role in all our lives; but for it to play such a dominant role in people’s imagination is surely not a healthy thing. And for people to immediately and instinctively take every human event – no matter how tragic and how painful — and place it in the maw of our politics is wrong and even repulsive. It exploits people’s sorrow and grief in order to score cheap political points and frame stupid political argument.

A modest and civilized society would give room to the families and friends of the dead to begin to process their shattering losses. It would give room to the police to do their work and gather evidence. It would leave room for citizens of this nation to reflect with soberness and seriousness on what has happened; to participate, if only for a brief time, in a national mourning of sorts. And it might even resist the impulse to leverage a massacre into a political culture war. It would be helpful if members of the press and politicians understood this, and acted in a way that showed some measure of decency and compassion."

Maybe best to view this thread as one written when people -- all of us -- were angry and frightened and saw no easy ways to grasp the situation.

Plenty to talk about, from culture and law to journalism, but I think our President got it right when he said there are going to be other days for politics.

शान्तिः, for those who asked, is the Sanskrit word shanti (or as those of us who came to it via Eliot first saw it, shantih) which is part of the peace mantra and signifies three levels of peace; the notes to The Waste Land invoke a Bible verse to explain it: "Repeated as here, a formal ending to an Upanishad. 'The Peace which passeth understanding' is a feeble translation of the content of this word."

Repeating it is said to remove obstacles to contemplation and peace. Not offered as an invitation to one of the many religions I do not practice, just offered.

Thanks for the much needed wet blanket. I am sure it will chill the emotions of some. Good for you.

Sorry I have just a couple more things to say then I'll be still.

Roch,

Big difference between nano second goof by CNN on SCOTUS decision and ABC's malicious slander of the TEA party. Did a Goggle search on James Holmes and got 240,000 hits. Let me ask were you so forgiving when Rush called Sandra Fluke a slut and then apologized. Were you cheerleading for his sponsors to drop him ? How about when Ed Shutlz called Laura Inghram a slut or when Bill Maher called Sarah Palin a slut ? How about David Letterman's crude reference to Palin's " slutty fligt attendant look " ? So should Brian Ross be fired ? Oh, I guess that is a judgement you don't feel comfortable making. Yeah !